Florida students to march on Washington in call for gun reform
Islam Is Not Terrorist by virtue of Surah Al Maidah, Verses 32 [
5:32 ]. And who is the real terrorist now?
WASHINGTON: Students who
survived a mass
shooting at their Florida school on Sunday (Feb
18) announced plans to march on Washington in a bid to "shame"
politicians into reforming laws that make firearms readily available.
The "March for our
Lives" will take place on Mar 24, with sister rallies planned across
the country, a group of students told ABC News' "This Week."
They pledged to make
Wednesday's slaughter in Parkland, Florida a turning point in America's
deadlocked debate on gun control.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, a
troubled former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, confessed to
killing 17 people with a legally-purchased AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the
latest such atrocity in a country with more than 30,000 gun-related deaths
annually.
Among the students
announcing the march was Emma Gonzalez, who captured worldwide attention with a
powerful speech in which she assailed President Donald Trump over the
multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby.
She vowed Stoneman Douglas
would be "the last mass shooting."
On Sunday, Gonzalez, 18, urged politicians to
join a conversation about gun control - citing Trump as well as his fellow
Republicans Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott.
"We want to give them the opportunity to be
on the right side of this," she said, as she and her four classmates
called on students nationwide to help push the message.
Trump will host a "listening session"
with high school students and teachers on Wednesday, the White House said in a
statement, though it did not specify who would attend the event.
Singling out the links between politicians and
the powerful National Rifle Association, fellow student Cameron Kasky said any
politician "who is taking money from the NRA is responsible for events
like this."
"This isn't about the GOP," he said,
referring to the Republican Party. "This isn't about the Democrats."
The NRA, a traditional ally of the Republicans
who currently control Congress and the White House, defends a literal view of
the US Constitution's 2nd Amendment which promises a right "to keep and
bear arms."
Even after last October's killing of 58 people
by a gunman in Las Vegas who amassed 47 firearms to commit the worst mass
shooting in recent US history, legislators accomplished nothing in the way of
tighter controls.
Accusing the NRA of "fostering and
promoting this gun culture," Kasky said the students seek "a new
normal where there's a badge of shame on any politician who's accepting money
from the NRA."
'THEY WANT ACTION'
"People keep asking us, what about the
Stoneman Douglas shooting is going to be different, because this has happened
before and change hasn't come?" said Kasky.
"This is it," he continued. "We
are going to be marching together as students begging for our lives."
The students did not indicate how many people
they expected to join their rallies. But their aims won support from Florida
Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch, who said they can make a difference.
"After what they saw, the worst things
imaginable, they're not going to just sit back and take it," he told
"This Week." "All I've heard all week is how frustrated people
are with rhetoric. They want action."
Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo,
speaking on the same programme, said he is working towards bipartisan solutions
that could prevent similar tragedies.
"There are a lot of Republicans who are
prepared to support reasonable, common-sense gun safety laws," he said.
Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff said that
although Republicans have faced a bigger hurdle in making gun control a priority,
"it's been a challenge in the Democratic Party as well."
Speaking on CNN's "State of the
Union," Schiff asked, "How much more of this are we gonna to take?
How many more shootings?"
Congress has to get "off its backside"
to "stare down the NRA and do the right thing," he said.
The student survivors' calls for change
"should matter," said Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut whose wife,
former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot and wounded by a deranged
gunman.
He said on "Fox News Sunday" that the
student activists "are going to vote on this issue probably for the rest
of their lives and they're going to encourage others to do that as well."
Speaking on CNN's "State of the
Union," Schiff asked, "How much more of this are we gonna to take?
How many more shootings?"
Congress has to get "off its backside"
to "stare down the NRA and do the right thing," he said.
The student survivors' calls for change
"should matter," said Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut whose wife,
former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot and wounded by a deranged
gunman.
He said on "Fox News Sunday" that the
student activists "are going to vote on this issue probably for the rest
of their lives and they're going to encourage others to do that as well."
But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh,
speaking on the same show, said neither legislation nor marches are the answer.
"It's not the fault of the NRA," he
said, calling for concealed weapons to be allowed in schools. "If we are
really serious about protecting the kids, we need a mechanism to be
defensive."
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